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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26974123">Cherished</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkDippedFingertips/pseuds/InkDippedFingertips'>InkDippedFingertips</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Space Between the First and Last Breath [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Boys In Love, Fluff, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani and Nicky | Nicolò di Genova are in Love, M/M, Protective Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Short &amp; Sweet, Temporary Character Death, Tooth-Rotting Fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 03:21:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,026</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26974123</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkDippedFingertips/pseuds/InkDippedFingertips</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Just Nicky musings on Joe's smile</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Space Between the First and Last Breath [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947598</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>114</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Cherished</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Prompt: I like your smile.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first time Nicolò saw Yusuf smile, it was stained with blood and exhaustion, directed at him with cracked lips and a resigned gleam in too knowing eyes. They had died too many times to count, their clothing soaked through and their bodies sore from their efforts. Nicolò had just thrown his sword down, a cry crawling its way up his throat until his voice carried across the battlefield, the sound like a dying animal.</p>
<p>He had fallen to his knees, the anger having faded into something else, something confused and hurt. Yusuf, though he hadn’t known his name at the time, stood only nearly eight paces away from him, watching. When Nicolò dared to meet his eyes, it was to find his enemy dropping his own weapon into the dirt and that smile spreading wide across his face.</p>
<p>Nicolò remembered being taken aback by the sight.</p>
<p>It was not so much the act itself, after all he was the one who had just collapsed into the dirt, no it was the way it lit up Yusuf’s face, like it he was born to smile. This was not the face of his enemy, this was the face of a man who would be by his side forever, who he would grow to love in a way that would not feel survivable.</p>
<p>Of course, he hadn’t known that at the time.</p>
<p>From there, smiles were few and far between and Nicolò recalled with startling clarity to this day, that he dreamt of it more then once as they trudged away from the ransacked city of Jerusalem, a heavy weight upon their shoulders.</p>
<p>Anger had been more common between them then; their words being spoken in a jumble of unrecognizable sounds, but their tone making meaning clear. Arguments were difficult to win when you weren’t sure what your enemies’ point was. Nicky still wasn’t sure what had possessed them to remain by each other’s side, how they had been able to stand each other long enough to learn their language.</p>
<p>He was just glad they did.</p>
<p>Which was why, he supposed, he recalled the second time he saw Yusuf smile. The memory was ingrained in his mind, even as others that should be far more significant, began to fade. They had been together for nearly eight months and had settled into something of a truce…though Nicolò would never have admitted he was rather fond of the other man.</p>
<p>They had been making camp after a long day of travel, having just wondered into unfamiliar land in their quest to find the women they dreamed of. Yusuf had been down by the river, collecting water when an arrow buried itself in Nicolò’s gut.</p>
<p>He had cried out, less from pain or surprise, and more of a need to warn his companion. It had worked because only moments later, he heard an answering cry, one that was utterly enraged and reminded him of that day long past on a battlefield, when it was directed at him.</p>
<p>For his part, Nicolò had fallen onto his back, hands clasped tightly around where he was impaled, hands growing warm and slippery. He had managed to pull it from his gut, the tearing sensation almost enough to make him vomit and…he waited. It would be his first death since that day, since he’d failed to die by Yusuf’s hands and there was a small part of him, that wondered…that hoped he might die now, that this was his way out of the hellish fate his God had given him.</p>
<p>Nicolò had drifted off just as hands gripped his body and tugged him close, a familiar voice saying his name over and over again. The relief had been palpable, as darkness dragged him beneath cold waves. He had been so certain that he would die this time, that he was simply never meant to die by Yusuf’s hand, that he’d found his time.</p>
<p>Inevitably, Death had weighed his soul and found him wanting, discarding him back to the world of the living to continue his sentence.</p>
<p>That was when he saw Yusuf truly smile for the second time.</p>
<p>He blinked open his eyes, a distant ache in his stomach, to find himself in Yusuf’s arms. In that moment, he was met with the most beautiful sight, a shaky smile and watery eyes, a relief and joy in his expression strong enough to make Nicolò regret his earlier wish to stay dead.</p>
<p>“Nicolò.”</p>
<p>It was as though he could not bring himself to say anything else, as though words had abandoned him the moment, he realized his companion had indeed returned to life and Nicolò found himself in a similar state.</p>
<p>“Yusuf.”</p>
<p>The moment he spoke his name, the smile turned from shaky to blinding and Nicolò was helpless but to mirror it.</p>
<p>That was the moment Nicolò became determined to see it as often as possible, to do what little things he could to coax it from behind his weary exterior because so long as Yusuf smiled, things were not all that terrible with the world.</p>
<p>It did not prove to be a difficult vow to make, once they’d both come to terms with the fact that they cared for one another, that this was more then an uneasy truce and they had in fact, become friends. Joe was tactile and happy to impart both his touches and his smiles upon Nicolò, who savoured each one from that day onward.</p>
<p>His love for Joe’s smile was no guarded secret and now, nearly 900 years later, Nicolò knew when his lover smiled just for him. Their mornings were almost always met with that slow, lazy grin, the one that said I love you and you love me. Their days saw scattered little upturns of his lips when he met Nicky’s eyes. Their evenings were graced with sleepy, clumsy lips and quiet chuckles that told him Joe knew exactly what he was doing.</p>
<p>Nicolò cherished each and every one, holding them close to his heart and being reminded every time, how lucky he was to love and be loved by such a beautiful soul.</p>
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